The Russellville Democrat., 1887-12-14
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Pertinent Inquiry: s'Is Thine
 Heart Right p''
A sacramental Discourse, Showing tho Necessity of Keeping the Heart Right
 By the sstsrsssstion of A For- giving Spirit.

Upon a recent sacramental occasion at Brooklyn Tabernacle, Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage took for his subject the sSaluta- tion from the Chariot" !" his text being:
 Is thine heart =igntY-H Kings, K, 15.
 With me1tled horses at full speed, for he was celebrated for fast driving, Jehu, the warrior and king, returns from battle. But seeing Jehonidab, an acquaintance, by the wayside, he shouts, "Whoa whoaW to the lathered span. Then leaning over to Jehonidab, Jehu salutes him in tho words of the text-words not moro ap- propriate for that hour and place than for this hour and place:
 Is thine heart rights
 I should like to hear of your physical health. We'll myself. like to have every body else well, and so might ask, lis your evesight right, your hearing right, your nerves right, your lungs right, your entire body rightg But I am busy to-day taking diagnosis of the more irapor tapt spiritual condi ditions.
 should like to hear of your financial welfare. I want every body to have plenty of money, ample apparel, large storehouse and comfortable residence; and I might ask sTs your business right, your income right, your worldly surround ings rightf" But what are these financial questions compared with the inquiry as to whether you have been able to pay your debts to God; as to whether you are in sured for eternity; as to whether you are running yourself by thelong-credit system of the soul? I have known men to have no more than one loaf of bread at time, and yet to own q government bond of Heaven worth more than the whole material universe.
 The question l ask you to- day Is not in regard to your habits. make no inquiry about your integrity. or your chastity, or your sobriety. I do not mean to stand on the outs idle of the gate and ring tho bell, but coming up thJ steps open the door and come .o the private apartment of the scul, and with the earnestness of a man that must give an account for this days work cry out: "Oh, man, oh, wom- an immortal, is thine heart right?"
 will not insult you by an argument to prove that we are by nature all wrong. If there be factory explosion, and the smoke stack be upset, and the wheels be broken in two, and the engine unjointed, and the ponderous bars be twisted, and a man should look in and say that nothing was the matter. you would pronounce him fool. Well, 1t needs no acumen to dis cover that our nature is all atwist, and askew, and unjointed. The thing doesn't work right. The biggest trouble we have in the world is with our souls.
 Men sometimes say that though their lives may not be just right, their heart is all right. Impossiblei A farmer never puts the poorest apples on top of his bar rel; nor does the merchant place the meanest goods in his show window. The best part of us is our outward life. l do not stop to discuss whether we all fell in Adam, for we have been our own Adam, and have all eaten of the forbidden fruit, and have been turned out of the paradise of holiness and peace; and though the flaming sword that stood at the gate to keep us out has changed position and comes behind to drive us in, we will not go.
 The Bible account of us is not exagger- ated when it says that we are poor, and wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked Poor: the wretch that stands shivering on our doorstep on Q cold day is not so much in need of bread as we are of spiritual help. Blind: why, the man whose eyes perished in the powder blast, and who for these ten years has gone feel ing his way from street to street. is not in such utter darkness as we. Naked: why there is no one rag of holiness left to hide the shame of our sin. Sick: why, the lep- rosy has eaten into the head, and the heart, and the hands, and the feet; and the marasmus of an everlasting vast ing away has already seized on some of us.
 But the meanest thing for a man to do is to discourse about an evil without point ing way to have it remedied. speak of the thirst of your hot tongue only that may show you tine living stream that drops crystalline and sparkling from the Rock of Ages, and pours river of glad ness at your feet. If I show you the rents in your coat, it is only because the door of Gods wardrobe now swings open, and here is a robe, white with the fleece of the Lamb of God, and of cut and make that an angel would not be ashamed to wear. If I snatch from you the black, mouldy bread that you are munching, it is only to give you the bread made out of the finest wheat that grows on the celestial hills, and baked in the fires of the cross, and one crumb of which would be enough to make all Heaven a banquet. Hear it, one and all, and tell it to your friends whom you go home. that the Lord Jesus Christ eau make the heart right
 First we need repenting heart. If for the last ten, twenty or forty years of life we have been going on in the wrong way, it is time that we turned around and started in the opposite direction. If we offend our friends we are glad to apolo- gize. God is our best friend, and yet how many of us have never apologiz ed for the wrongs we have done Him.
 There is nothing that we SO much need to get rid of as sin. 1t is horrible black monster. It polluted Eden. 10 killed Christ It has blasted the world. Men keep dogs in kennels, and rabbits in warren, and ca tile in a pen. What a man that would be who would shut them up in his parlor But this foul dog of sin and these herds of trnnsgres- sion, we have entertained for many long year in our heart, which should be the cleanest, brightest room in all our ature. Out with the vile herd Begone, ye be- foulers of an immortal naturel Turn out the beasts and let Christ come inl
 heather came to an early Christian who had the reputation of curing diseases. The Christian said: ssYou must have all your idols destroyed" The heathen gave to the Christian the key to his house, that he might go in and destroy the idols. He KtPtOo man did not get well. The Christian said to him: s'rhere must be some idol in your house not yet destroyed" The heathen confessed that there was one idol of beaten gold that he could not bear to give up. After awhile. when that was destroyed in answer to the prayer of the Christian, the sick man got we'll
 Many man has awakened in his dying hour to find his sins all about him They chamber up on the right side of the bed, and on the left side, and over tho headboard and over the footboard, and horribly devoured his soul.
 Repent the voice celestial cries,
 Nor longer dare delay,
 The wretch that scorns the mandate dies
 And meets a nery day.
 Again, we need believing heart. A good many years ago weary one went up to one Of the hills of Asia Minor and